To prevent reflection of a surrounding scenery in a display surface of a liquid crystal display apparatus or others, the display surface is usually kept away from regular reflection by coating or applying a mixture of a fine particle and a binder resin or curable resin on a support to form uneven (rough) structure on the surface, and is provided with anti-glareness. However, in a high definition display apparatus which has a small pixel size, a conventionally used surface-uneven size brings about debasement of an image such as dazzle (or glare) in display and blur (or indistinctness) of images. That is, in the case of a high definition display apparatus, a degree of a conventionally used surface-uneven size is close to that of the pixel size in the high definition display, and dazzle is generated due to a lens effect caused by the surface unevenness. Moreover, since the centroid position of the fine particles is unable to control in the inside and surface structures of a coat layer, the transmitted scattered-light distribution shows the Gaussian distribution with a central focus on a rectilinear transmitted light. In a conventional fine particle size, accordingly, the scatteration on the periphery of the rectilinear transmitted light increases, and the pixel border becomes vague or unclear, as a result blur (or clouding) of images occurs.
Therefore, there has been tried to minify a size of a fine particle to be added, or to control an uneven shape of the surface with the use of fine particles having a limited particle size distribution. In these manners, however, it is necessary for preventing dazzle or blur of images to control the centroid position of the fine particles. Moreover, since the uneven shape of the surface becomes smaller, compatibility of adequate anti-glareness is difficult to attain and there is disadvantage from the viewpoint of cost performance.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 215307/2001 (JP-2001-215307A) discloses an anti-glare layer containing a transparent fine particle having the mean particle size of 15 μm in a coat layer whose thickness is not less than twice of the mean particle size, wherein the anti-glare layer has a surface having a finely uneven structure through unevenly distributing the transparent fine particles in one side being in touch with air of the coat layer. This literature also discloses the anti-glare layer supported by a transparent support film, and an optical member comprising the anti-glare layer in at least one side of a polarizing plate.
As a technique for disposing a low refraction index layer on a surface in order to express a low reflective power (or property), Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 264508/2001 (JP-2001-264508A) discloses an anti-glare antireflection film comprising an anti-glare hardcoat layer and a low refraction index layer formed on a transparent support in this order, wherein the anti-glare hardcoat layer contains particles having a mean particle size of 1 to 10 μm, and the low refraction index layer contains inorganic fine particles having a mean particle size of 0.001 to 0.2 μm, a hydrolysate of a photo-curable organosilane and/or a partial condensate thereof and a fluorine-containing polymer, and has a refraction index of 1.35 to 1.49.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 281411/2001 (JP-2001-281411A) discloses an anti-glare antireflection film having similar composition as that recited in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 264508/2001 (JP-2001-264508A), wherein the film has the visibility of a transmitted image using an optical slit of 0.5 mm width being 30 to 70%.
Also in such films, however, since the intensity distribution of the transmitted scattered-light is controlled with a particle size thereof, it is impossible to prevent dazzle or blur of images in the display surface effectively. Moreover, these films have a disadvantage from the viewpoint of cost performance due to using a special fine particle.